Today I'm doing an experiment in drip pan beans while smoking a couple racks of spares, and needed some smoked bacon to go in there. Used half the package for that and the other for these here BLATCh (BLT + avo + cheese) sandwiches. Yummy!
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I smoked a 12.4 pound Boston butt from Wednesday 11pm until Thursday 4pm. Long slow cook at 225F, and the butt started at a very cold 25F internal temperature (only out of the freezer for a day before the cook). Very good, but no pictures of the pulled pork, as I was too busy pulling it and smacking the hands of everyone that was gobbling it up as I shredded it...
Also served with a choice of Christmas Lima's and Pinto's from Rancho Gordo, and slaw.
Prepped with a layer of kosher salt topped with MMD:
Right before pulling off the SNSK - bone was literally falling out...
Last edited by jfmorris; February 11, 2022, 02:27 PM.Comment
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jfmorris, it's the Blaz'n Grid Iron. I've never been unable to get the OG to work no matter how cold, but the PID controller in the Blaz'n shuts down if it doesn't get up to 160 in 20 minutes. The Roanoke controller is supposed to automatically adjust for cold temps, but when it's really cold and windy it doesn't seem to adjust enough. Once it actually gets all that steel up to temp it's fine, but until it does it can't keep up. After an hour I finally gave up today. -
Bogy it's interesting that the much more expensive pellet smoker has more trouble handling the wind and the cold... too bad you don't have a Grilla at each place!
Nothing wrong with the oven though in the dead of winter I suppose. I've certainly been cooking outside less.
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jfmorris, as far as which smoker was the most expensive, remember that my OG was made in Holland, MI, not in China. And when it was new it cost about $1600. I bought it from a former dealer for $500. The OG's old style analogue controller easily allows me to adjust the flow rate of the pellets. The Blaz'n, a larger & heavier smoker, has a PID controller that is supposed to do that adjusting for me. And it does it fine when it's 80 degrees out. Not as well below freezing and with 40 mile winds.
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Pulled pork tonight. If it looks chopped, it was. We all get that one but that does not tender up. Not going to sell it, but sure not going to toss it.
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Well, I'll add one more. I dusted off the Smokey Joe. Did a Porter House. Brined a couple of hours and course pepper. I like to keep it simple with something like a P.H. Turned out delicious. Meat quality MEH. A bit fatty but that's the chance you take at a grocery store, consistency. Last one I did, same store same purchase no issues.
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Couple racks of heritage pork WIBS with an experiment in drip-pan beans (that remains ongoing). Beans taste fantastic but need more cookin' so they're back on the stove as I type. Smoked at 250F/121C, plus or minus, took about 5 hours for the wibs to be done. Absolutely delicious, tug-off-the-bone, explosively juicy. Victory is declared.
Hat tip to ecowper Eric for his drunken beans recipe, on which my approach is heavily modeled.
Last edited by DaveD; February 11, 2022, 07:17 PM.Comment
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It has been a while since I last made pastrami. Shopping in Costco a few weeks ago, I walked by a corned top round (I think - I can’t remember the exact cut) and thought, the easy way to get some pastrami in meh belly! So, desalinated for about 24 hours, rubbed with Meathead "Amazing Pastrami Dust"and into the smoker at 275* for about 10 hours. Pulled it at 193-195 and rested for about an hour.
This was perfect! I was worried it may be dry, but it turned out amazing. Sliced it up and made pastrami and Swiss sandwiches on the CI, which I failed to get a pic of but they were great!
Last edited by barelfly; February 11, 2022, 08:20 PM.Comment
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texastweeter here’s the pastrami - SheilaAnn
This was just perfect! Not dry at all and pull apart tender. I wish I remembered what cut this was - but it was some type of round. Looking at it, very similar to the two eye of round I made these past week.
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Picanha and eggs
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Troutman 131 degrees hot tub time machine for about 4 hours. Quick sear in HOT cast iron skillet. Seasoned with just SEA SALT
I get the meat fat cap side down in the skillet while I'm bring it up to temp. By the time it's hot for searing, some of the fat has rendered and the remaining cap is crisp, flip and sear on naked side BOOOOM done.
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Za'atar salmon (Sitka) with tahini sauce. A recipe from the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen. Really tasty.
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The Porter Road order put in a week or two ago came with some pork chops, which I reverse seared last night. They were excellent
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DaveD I take it off the low-n-slow smoke to get it ready to sear when it hits ~125-130* F
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Dinner party at our house for a dozen last night. I didn't get good pix of the whole thing, but a selection that came looking good. The wife and I tag teamed to get it done (OK, she did a very large part and I grilled, tasted, and assembled 😁)
Grilled lamb sliders, reverse seared with cherry for smoke. Bacon jam, alleppo pepper aoli, arugula on Lisa's hand made slider rolls for an appetizer.
Beef borguignon made with Click Akaushi chuck roast. OMG. Best borg yet, the quality of the beef was very noticeable.
Variety of Lisa's bread and her butters. The rolls are Japanese milk bread, and the dark ones use black cocoa.
Finished up with salad topped with cured egg (previously pictured), Yukon gold mashed potatoes.
Desert was sous vide cheesecake with fruit, Strawberry crepes, and dark chocolate cupcakes.
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Quite the production! Congrats!Comment
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Hangersteak.. with potatoes, shrooms, aspargues, grilled veggies.. topped with whiskypepper sauce..Comment
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A few days ago, I continued down my journey of pizza exploration and made my best pizza yet!
I did a few things differently this time. I let the dough ferment in the fridge for six days. (I wanted to do day three or four, but life got in the way.) There were two things I noticed with this technique. First, the dough was much easier to knead out into my 12" cast iron pan and also, and perhaps most importantly, it gave the dough that yeasty/pizzay taste that my previous day-of doughs did not have.
I also used low-moisture whole milk mozzarella cheese instead of the shredded part-skim mozzarella I had been using. Wow. What a difference! This is the secret to those utterly delicious brown patches on pizza cheese. YUM!
I also tried getting away from the traditional American-style toppings. For this I used prosciutto and chopped shallots. This was incredibly good. Intense flavor without pools (and pools) of grease. (My pizza sauce is uncooked crushed Muir Glen fire-roasted tomatoes, with some oregano, salt, garlic powder, and a pinch of sugar mixed in.)
I still am thinking of getting a baking steel in the future, but for now my technique of browning the bottom of the crust on the stove before putting the toppings on and placing in the oven or pellet grill is working exceptionally well for me.
Here we are just out of the oven (475 F for 15 mins). My crust shrunk a bit, obviously. Look at those brown spots on the cheese!!
Resting on a wire rack to keep that bottom crisp.
Strings of cheese! Can't get that with shredded moz.
The bottom of the crust. (I lightly oil the cast iron with EVOO and sprinkle in some oregano and red pepper flakes before pre-browning the crust for about 4 minutes.)
Definitely will make again.....probably Friday.
Last edited by Michael_in_TX; February 12, 2022, 03:21 PM.Comment
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Great job! If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 1000 times. Grate your own cheese! There are tons of additives to the pre shredded stuff. That’s why it hard melts the way regular grated-to-order does. I’m going to try browning before hitting the oven first. Honestly, I have done it the other way around with ok results. I will report back! -
Putting down a little bit of EVOO and some spices gives it a very lightly fried taste that I like.
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lunch today with this good pastrami! And Since I didn’t get a plated shot last night……
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